The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Goodbyes

"Hey Jaune!" A voice called out to me, making me open my eyes. It was dinner time, I noted absently, which meant I'd really spent the entire day meditating. Thanks to Pericognition, I hadn't even needed to both focusing on anything like bumping into people in the halls of accident or missing crucial details, so I'd turned the full focus of my conscious mind inwards, on guiding my power.

Qigong was an interesting skill. Since receiving it, I became aware of a strange series of pathways, just as the skill had described. Looking at it, it seemed to be like a circulatory system for 'life energy'—something I assumed to be something between my HP, MP, and Stamina. It flowed throughout my body alongside my blood, flowing in and out of it in a similar fashion as it seemed to feed and vitalize me.

It wasn't something physical, but, in an odd way, didn't feel like something that was wholly of the spirit, either. It truly did seem to connect the two somehow, with life flowing somehow outward and inward from my soul. It made me wonder if it was something that had always been there but which I hadn't been fully aware of, or if it was something I'd gained along with the skill.

I wasn't sure and there were fairly major implications for both answers. If this was a part of my body and had always been there, then it explained a few things though, like the flows of power I sometimes noticed and the interactions between the patterns of woven dust, their positions on the body, and the resulting effects. Given that, I suspected it was something that had always been a part of me, if invisibly so, and that Qigong had simply…unclogged my arteries, in a way.

Or at least some of them. After carefully examining this new part of my spiritual body, I counted a total of eight 'vessels,' twelve 'pathways,' and nearly seven hundred 'openings.' Energy was gathered and stored within the vessels, flowed along the paths, and circulated in and out of the openings like blood through capillaries. Not all the points were actually open, however, nor did any of the vessels and pathways seem like they were being fully utilized or developed, and so it was difficult to make the energy flow properly—but as I improved the skill level, the process eased and new areas opened. Each time, it was like filling my lungs anew and I could feel my body strengthening.

It was an interesting, amazing, and—most importantly of all—useful process to observe and I'd have gladly done so for days, knowing the benefits I could incur. A part of me, larger than I would like to admit, wanted to just brush off the interrupting voice and get back to it; I mean, really, I was trying to prepare myself to save the world. I felt like that should give me a free pass to ignore any and all distractions.

But I held back the urge because I recognized the voice.

"Neptune?" I asked. I was sitting at a table with the rest of my team—by which I meant Adam, Mercury, and Emerald. The latter two were still following me around, which must have been outrageously boring for them, the poor bastards. I'd rattled off some brief excuse about mental training and had utterly ignored them since. Their report back to Cinder was going to be fair dull, I suspected, and I could feel occasional spikes of irritation roll off of them even while I meditated.

Their weakness gave me strength.

"Do you have a minute?" Neptune asked as he hurried over to our table. "I need to ask you about something."

I looked at him for a moment and then shrugged, nodding his way. To be honest, I was a bit curious about what he wanted from me; though our brief interaction was more than enough for me to recognize his voice instantly, that was more because I had a really, really good memory rather than any indication of the time we'd spent together. After my introduction to Team SSSN on our first day, I'd gone on to make waves and had sort of secured my position among the seniors and such. I still met Sun's and Kyanos's teams regularly and was on friendly enough terms with them, but it wasn't like we really hung out much. Most of our time together was spent in the classroom and Neptune had never approached me individually—especially not with feelings of worry.

"Sure, go ahead," I answered. "What do you need?"

"Have you seen Sun around anywhere?" He asked me, eyebrows furrowing. "We haven't been able to find him anywhere yet."

"Sun?" I replied, blinking as I scanned the entire school and didn't sense him anywhere. After a moment, Pericognition noted that I hadn't seen him since I came back, which wasn't unusual in and of itself; being a school full of people in their upper teens and twenties, it wasn't uncommon for students to leave Haven in pursuit of fun. It hadn't seemed particularly noteworthy, so it hadn't caused any alarm to me. "No, not since yesterday. He's missing?"

Neptune nodded.

"He left over the weekend and hasn't come back yet," Neptune said. "I'd say that's not really like him, but that would be a lie—but usually, he'd bring us a long if he was ditching."

A normal student might have commented on that, but I left every night to go kill hordes of horrific creatures with my friends and could proudly say that I'd never once listened to a teacher's lecture all the way through. Or half of the way through. Really, they were lucky if I listened at all. Honestly, I was kind of envious of the fact that Sun could just ditch entirely, flaunting the fact that not everyone was being watched by nightmarish abominations. I want to leave too, you know…

Still, Sun was more or less a friend of mine, or at least a sort of friend of a friend, so it was worth at least looking around. I couldn't see any reason for him to be connected to it, but it could even have something to do with my enemies or a sign of something to come. I made a point of not ignoring problems that arose, because I knew damn well that they didn't tend to go away; in my experience, they just used the opportunity to grow worse.

So I paused to survey the entire school closely, looking for any signs. Pericognition would have sent up the alarm if there were any signs of murder or such, but there were always things that seemed meaningless out of context. I took stock of finger prints, foot prints, and biological traces, gauging them to find the most recent and followed them out of the school. Then, I checked in on all of my enemies and anyone I thought might try to pick on a freshman, making sure they were all accounted for and making note of those who weren't. Finally, I went back through the stream of information I constantly noticed in the background but tried not to pay attention to, searching for any sign of Sun on websites, the news, and messages.

Sun had one of those first names that made searching for him a pain in the ass, but it surprisingly didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. When I did, I had to keep myself from both smiling and rolling my eyes.

"Did you check your scroll?" I hinted at Neptune. "Maybe he left you a message or something."

"Sun has literally never done that," Neptune replied. "The last time I asked him to send me a message on my scroll, he stole it, tapped a note to it, and had it mailed back to me."

At that, the desire to smile won out.

"Still," I insisted. "There's a first time for everything, right?"

Neptune tilted his head to the side at that, conceding the point as he drew his scroll from his pocket and opened it. After a few seconds, he frowned.

"There's a message, but it's not from Sun," He said. "Or not from his scroll, at least. But then, it probably wouldn't be, huh?"

"Open it already," I prompted.

Neptune did and then paused, staring at the screen as he read the message I'd found earlier.

Sorry guys, I'm gone. There was a boat with bananas on it and I was going to steal them all and declare myself the Monkey King. Found out in the process that the ship was head for Vale or something? And I was thinking, hey, we made the cut, didn't we? And there's that test next week, isn't there? And since we've basically passed already, there's really no point in sticking around for it, so yeah, I got a free boat ride! I called you guys, but you were sleeping like losers, so you guys are gonna have to find your own boat. Meet up in Vale as soon as possible!

Also, Neptune, can you do my homework? Just in case it turns out it does matter. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

Thanks,

The Monkey King.

P.S. I got my bananas. Was going to share some with you, but half of them are gone and we only just left, so that's probably not happening.

P.P.S. Bring more bananas.

Neptune put a hand over his face.

"Sun," He growled at last. "If there's a sea monster trying to eat you right now, I just want you to know…I wish it luck."

Then, he glanced at me as I stood to look over his shoulder at the message, for appearances sake.

"Um," He said, pausing for a moment. "Do you know where I could get a boat?"

"Can't say I do," I answered. "I try to avoid sea travel, myself—"

Mainly because a sea monster trying to eat me was a sincere possibility and I had no desire to see if the legends about Jormungandr were true.

"But Kyanos might know," I continued. "Alexandria controls most of the shipping industry."

"Right," He said. "Thanks. Um, sorry about…this."

"No problem," I assured. "So, you guys made the cut?"

"Yeah," Neptune answered proudly. "Was tough, but they just told us this weekend. I'm kind of nervous, to be honest—I mean, there are some big names on that list and that's just here at Haven. But we've got to try our best, right?"

"That's right," I replied, smiling at him.

"But, uh…you'll take it easy on us, right?" Neptune asked, looking a bit nervous again. He didn't usually act that way on the outside, so he must really be worried about the tournament. "If we end up having to fight each other?"

I smiled at him.

"Sure," I said. "But you'll be fine. Don't worry about it."

"You think so?" He wondered, eyebrows furrowing.

I nodded, looking at the words above his head and those of his remaining teammates.

The Mountain Thrower

LV59

Sage Agathiyar

The Crowned and Mirrored Flower

LV58

Scarlet Nastenka

Who Dashes Against the Stones

LV57

Neptune Vasilias

"Yeah," I said. "You should do okay as long as you don't get unlucky—and you have a few more months to train, anyway. I'm sure they have something in mind for the match ups, anyway."

It was true. At least amongst the Freshman teams, at least, team SSSN would probably do fine, so long as they didn't get a bad match up. Or me.

I wondered absently how the people in charge would handle massive outliers.

"Right," Neptune nodded as if to reassure himself. "Thanks again, man. Do you know where Kyanos is?"

"He should be here in just a minute," I answered. "Why don't you take a seat?"

Neptune did and, sure enough, Kyanos and his team arrived less than sixty seconds later, walking in through the doors of the dining hall. Neptune was quick to wave them down, drawing them over to our table, and I gave them a cursory glance as they approached.

The Seventeenth Scourge

LV 60

Ulaan Khagan

The Glinting Helm and Driving Spear

LV 57

Kyanos Alexandria

Nymph's Shadow

LV 54

Melania Delphos

The Arrested Destiny

LV 60

Itri Barca

"Hey guys," Kyanos said as they drew near. "What's up?"

"It's, uh…" Neptune paused and fround, evidently floundering as he searched for the words to describe his situation.

"Perhaps it'd be better if you saw it for yourself," I suggested, gesturing absently at Neptune's scroll. "It's about Sun."

"Sun?" Kyanos repeated, blinking as he accepted the device from Neptune. "Come to think of it, I didn't see him in class. What's wrong with…"

He trailed off as his eyes quickly scanned over Sun's message, blinking quickly as his mouth dropped open slightly.

"Oh," He said at last.

"Oh is right," I agreed, still smiling.

Kyanos seemed to ponder the screen for a moment before pursing his lips and shaking his head.

"Well, that's one way to get out of the end of the semester assessment," He decided. "I can't say I don't empathize a little bit—I mean, a two hour exam that doesn't count for our grade?"

"It's important for the teachers," Neptune defended. "Gives them a better idea of how much we've improved and what we need to work on."

"I guess," Kyanos replied, shrugging. "But isn't that what all those practice spars have been for? Really, it just seems like a waste of time and it's not like the results are going to be posted—at least then we could use it as a dick measuring contest and compete with each other. But wasting two hours so the teachers can double check their notes? My motivation is dwindling already."

"Dick measuring contest?" Melania asked, making a face at her friend and team leader. "Really, Kyanos?"

"Don't worry about it, Melania," He replied without even looking her way. "I'm sure your metaphorical lady penis would have been duly impressive."

Melania kicked him in the shin.

"What about you, Jaune?" Kyanos asked, ignoring the blow. "Yea or nay?"

"I don't really care," I admitted. "I'll probably just do something impressive at the very beginning and then leave; if they want more than that, they can call my grandmother and have her direct them towards someone who cares. It's not like it's a huge issue for me."

"True," Kyanos answered. "You would probably be at the top of the dick chart."

"Enough penises," Melania cut in with a sigh as I tilted my head towards her friend. "Good God but I didn't realize being the only girl on a team would be this hard."

"Speaking of hardness—" Kyanos picked up without missing a beat only to briefly falter as Melania leaned back and kicked him in the ass hard enough to send him staggering into the edge of the table. He recovered quickly, though, raising his hands in concession. "I was just going to ask Neptune what he was going to do with a teammate missing, jeez. Why are you so violent today?"

"I woke up and you three were the first thing I saw," She answered scathingly, glaring at her three teammates. Itri and Ulaan had slightly glazed looks in their eyes, giving away the fact that they weren't even bothering to pay attention to what was by now a common argument. "Take your clothes to the shower if you want to get dressed, idiots."

"Why?" He asked. "It's our room."

"It's my room, too," She answered, tone unchanged. "Did you ever consider maybe I don't want to watch you get undressed?"

Kyanos shook his head.

"Nope," He answered. "Not even once. I mean, even I struggle to keep my hands off myself."

"I'm sure you do," Melanie shot back with an annoyed snort.

"Oh," Ulaan muttered mildly, still staring blankly into space. "It's funny because of the implication that you touch yourself."

Kyanos didn't seem even vaguely offended.

"This is why you keep losing to me in spear fights, Ulaan," He noted. "You can't just hope to win with just quick thrusts—you've got to control the movement, man. You need more experience."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ulaan answered dryly as Melania pinched the bridge of her nose.

Kyanos glanced towards her and shrugged, still smiling.

"I'm not sure what you want me to do," He said. "We share changing rooms, too. Haven's not much on boundaries between teammates. Or genders. Or anything else, really."

"Yeah, but why is it that when I open my eyes, the first thing I see is your ass in my face?" She replied with a scowl.

"You should wake up earlier," Itri cut in, sounding similarly bored. "That's what I did when I learned the cost of beauty sleep in a shared room."

I cleared my throat as Neptune's brow became increasingly furrowed.

He didn't look particularly surprised, however. One might hope that conversations concerning unplanned voyeurism and nudity would be in short supply at a school meant to train the future defenders of Mankind, but one would be wrong.

"Guys," I cut in, rolling my eyes at them. "Bringing this conversation back above the belt, Neptune needs help."

"Right," Kyanos said, smoothly shifting tracks. "What do you need, Neptune?"

"A boat or something," Neptune answered with a sigh. "Like it or not, he's my friend—I can't let him do something stupid without me."

"I'm not sure that's how that's supposed to work," Melania noted with a frown.

"No, it's pretty much how it works," Adam replied.

"And I'm the guy with the boats," Kyanos answered with a nod, ignoring them both. "I see. Yeah, it wouldn't be too hard to just get you a place on the next ship out or something—and Mrs. Nikos would probably be up for a chance to visit her daughter in Vale, given half an excuse. Did you know she used to be a pirate?"

"She wasn't a pirate," Melania insisted.

"She was kind of a pirate," Kyanos disagreed. "Just, government sponsored and such."

"A privateer," Ulaan supplied.

"Yeah, that," He agreed. "But pirate sounds cooler. Anyway, she could take us. It might be faster to just take an airship, though."

Neptune raised his eyebrow even higher.

"Us?" He asked.

"If your whole team gets to skip class, then so do we," Kyanos stated firmly. "Ulaan, Itri?"

The two of them frowned for a long moment, exchanged a look, and then nodded.

"Jaune?" He asked, turning to me next. "Up for abusing your family connections with us? I'm sure we can arrange leaving early."

"Mm," I hummed, amused but noncommittal. Still, there was an opportunity here that was worth considering. "Let me go talk to my grandmother and I'll see what I can do."

"Jaune?" Adam asked, no doubt sensing that I was up to something.

"They're right," I said. "There's not much point in sticking around if we don't have to and we've finished most of the important stuff already. I'm sure we could arrange to finish up everything that's actually important in the meantime and then we can all head over to Vale—it could be like a vacation. We can use it to train some more before the tournament, too."

"And scope out the competition," Itri noted.

"And have fun in Vale," Kyanos stated cheerfully. "I know that some students would be arriving by now, anyway; Haven just likes to wait until the break for whatever reason."

"Maybe to keep from interfering with our studies?" Neptune suggested.

There was a collective snort.

"The last month has been nothing but preparing us for the tournament," Kyanos said. "Everything else was busy work at best. Jaune?"

I shrugged. To be honest, I'd noticed that the work I was being given was fairly easy, even by normal standards. No one had tried to train me, though—whether because of something Grandmother had said or because they honestly didn't think I needed the help, I wasn't sure. Either way, it didn't much matter.

"That's what I thought," Kyanos mused. "After this is over, they'll probably work our asses off, but they want us to look good for the tournament more than they want us to learn stuff we can just make up later. Between the four of us, I'm betting we can work something out."

I nodded in agreement again. Truthfully, it didn't make much difference to me one way or the other, so long as it didn't interfere with my plans, but this seemed like a good chance to move without drawing suspicion.

First things first, it was time to pay Grandmother a visit.